• ! ! ! IMPORTANT MESSAGE ! ! !

    Discussions about police investigations

    In light of recent developments about a player from Premier League being arrested and until there is an official announcement, ALL users should refrain from discussing or speculating about situations around personal off-pitch matters related to any Arsenal player. This is to protect you and the forum.

    Users who disregard this reminder will be issued warnings and their posts will get deleted from public.

Unai Emery: Adios

Status
Not open for further replies.

Toby

No longer a Stuttgart Fan
Moderator
I take your points. Just looking at clean sheets which is always a good overall measure of a defence.
2012/13 3rd
2013/14 2nd
2014/15 6th
2015/16 1st
2016/17 5th
2017/18 6th
2018/19 16th so far

To be fair, I hadn’t looked at this. But Bellerin, Mertersaker, Kos, Monreal in 2015/16 are in a different league to Lich, Mustafi, Sokratis, Kola.

16th is pretty terrible . . . we’re going backwards defensively. Our attack is disguising this problem with our league position.

Yes, prime Merte and Kos are levels above Mustafi and Sokratis. But not 16, ffs:lol:

That stat actually somewhat confirms my perception that we were laughable at the back sometimes but overall it was more the attack than the defence that let us down for a good while.

Back to the present: I'd get the "individual quality is the main problem"-view more, if we were somewhere between 5th and 10th or 6th like in 14/15 and 17/18, but 16th points not only to a lack of quality but overall structural problems.
 

Toby

No longer a Stuttgart Fan
Moderator
My point was he’s less likely to give away a goal through rashness. Two of those Liverpool goals were directly down to Sokratis’s poor decisions. Not tracking a runner and tackling a player from behind in the box.
Antoine-Griezmann-951778.jpg


ahem...it was absolutely unlucky but that's a horrible individual mistake
 

Makingtrax

Worships in the house of Wenger 🙏
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saliba
Antoine-Griezmann-951778.jpg


ahem...it was absolutely unlucky but that's a horrible individual mistake
Agreed, we’re talking levels of skill here, no of mistakes per season, anticipation, positional discipline, calmness under fire, blocks, tackles won and headers won.

The more I watch VVD the more I realise he’s tier 1, Kos is definitely tier 2 and Mustafi tier 3 in terms of elite defending stages.
 

A_G

Rice Rice Baby 🎼🎵
A-M CL Draft Campeón 🏆
Just looking at clean sheets which is always a good overall measure of a defence.
Not necessarily. Man United have been among the leaders in clean sheets for years even though their defence is crap, DDG has bailed them out more often than not.

Without a late consolation goal for Newcastle that had no bearing on the game, and a comedy of errors that led to Xhaka's shocker against Wolves this team would be in the top 10 for clean sheets. They'd only be 3 off of City who spent a lot of money on their defence and Sp**s who've had a settled team since 2015.
 

Makingtrax

Worships in the house of Wenger 🙏
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saliba
Not necessarily. Man United have been among the leaders in clean sheets for years even though their defence is crap, DDG has bailed them out more often than not.

Without a late consolation goal for Newcastle that had no bearing on the game, and a comedy of errors that led to Xhaka's OG against Wolves this team would be in the top 10 for clean sheets. They'd only be 3 off of City who spent a lot of money on their defence and Sp**s who've had a settled team since 2015.
It’s still a useful stat though.

At the end 2015/16 I showed that Wenger had the best defence using a combination of clean sheets, goals conceded and overall Squawka score that included blocks, tackles, interceptions etc. . . . but still got called deluded. :lol:
 
  • Like
Reactions: A_G

Lidl_Reed

Wants a new name
It’s still a useful stat though.

At the end 2015/16 I showed that Wenger had the best defence using a combination of clean sheets, goals conceded and overall Squawka score that included blocks, tackles, interceptions etc. . . . but still got called deluded. :lol:
We did have the best defence that season, Giroud lost us that one with his barren run. If we'd bought Laca that season, we'd have likely won the league
 

A_G

Rice Rice Baby 🎼🎵
A-M CL Draft Campeón 🏆
At the end 2015/16 I showed that Wenger had the best defence using a combination of clean sheets, goals conceded and overall Squawka score that included blocks, tackles, interceptions etc. . . . but still got called deluded.
"Arsenal myths" and "2nd out of 92" wasn't it? Iconic stuff.
 

Toby

No longer a Stuttgart Fan
Moderator
It’s still a useful stat though.

At the end 2015/16 I showed that Wenger had the best defence using a combination of clean sheets, goals conceded and overall Squawka score that included blocks, tackles, interceptions etc. . . . but still got called deluded. :lol:

Giroud's dry spell starting around January I think mainly killed off our title chances. A proper CF and a CM would have gotten us the title with the good defence. Wilshere was out for the whole season, Cazorla and Ramsey missing for long stretches, sometimes both at the same time.
 

Makingtrax

Worships in the house of Wenger 🙏
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saliba
Giroud's dry spell starting around January I think mainly killed off our title chances. A proper CF and a CM would have gotten us the title with the good defence. Wilshere was out for the whole season, Cazorla and Ramsey missing for long stretches, sometimes both at the same time.
Sums it up. Wenger luck.:lol:
 

squallman

Still Pining for Wenger
Giroud's dry spell starting around January I think mainly killed off our title chances. A proper CF and a CM would have gotten us the title with the good defence. Wilshere was out for the whole season, Cazorla and Ramsey missing for long stretches, sometimes both at the same time.

I'm not sure which hurts more, that or 2008. Wenger should have left with 5 league titles, 6 if we didn't mess up the 2003 run in. Not buying an outfield player in summer 2015 will go down as Wenger's second biggest mistake. I'd love to read in his book about what really went down that summer. Only side in Europe not to sign an outfield player.
 

Tourbillion

Angry & Miserable
I'm not sure which hurts more, that or 2008. Wenger should have left with 5 league titles, 6 if we didn't mess up the 2003 run in. Not buying na outfield player in summer 2015 will go down as Wenger's second biggest mistake. I'd love to read in his book about what really went down that summer. Only side in Europe not to sign an outfield player.
Seven if we didn't lose to that Hasselbaink header in 1999...
 

Toby

No longer a Stuttgart Fan
Moderator
I'm not sure which hurts more, that or 2008. Wenger should have left with 5 league titles, 6 if we didn't mess up the 2003 run in. Not buying an outfield player in summer 2015 will go down as Wenger's second biggest mistake. I'd love to read in his book about what really went down that summer. Only side in Europe not to sign an outfield player.

Chicharito for 12m and Capoue or N'Zonzi for 9m - all three transferred that summer. That's basically it. Just solid, capeable bodies in case of injuries. Chicharito would have surely gotten us those 10 goals more to drag us over the line, Capoue from the start of the season instead of Elneny in January would have massively helped us get through the November/December period during which both Ramsey and Cazorla were injured. Mind boggling that nothing more happened during that summer despite Cech.

Just in this league there were some neat transfers to be done: Thorgan Hazard, who has by now become a creative and dangerous winger, went for 8m. That would have been a Wenger type player and good prospect. Cabaye went to palace for 13m.

I think Wenger completely misjudged the durability and depth of his midfield and forward line that summer, even if he was right in his assessment that the first XI was good enough to win the league.
 
Last edited:

squallman

Still Pining for Wenger
Chicharito for 12m and Capoue or N'Zonzi for 9m - all three transferred that summer. That's basically it. Just solid, capeable bodies in case of injuries. Chicharito would have surely gotten us those 10 goals more to drag us over the line, Capoue from the start of the season instead of Elneny in January would have massively helped us get through the November/December period during which both Ramsey and Cazorla were injured. Mind boggling that nothing more happened during that summer despite Cech.

Just in this league there were some neat transfers to be done: Thorgan Hazard, who has by now become a creative and dangerous winger, went for 8m. That would have been a Wenger type player and good prospect. Cabaye went to palace for 13m.

I think Wenger completely misjudged the durability and depth of his midfield and forward line that summer.

It was absolutely mind boggling. I could rationalize it if we had finished 1 point off the top, but we were 12 points behind Chelsea the season before. Did Wenger really think all we needed was Cech? The same Cech who cost us the first game against West Ham?

No one at all in Europe who could have improved that side in Wenger's eyes. That season hurt more than the last two. I think it broke this team.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts+

Top Bottom